Liberalism and Crime: The British Experience
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Liberalism and Crime: The British Experience by Robert R. Sullivan Lanham, MD: Lexington Books (2000) ISBN 0 739101 30 7 (240 pages, $70.00)
Reviewed by Nick Johns This is an interesting and challenging book, both articulate and ambitious. Sullivan’s objective is to trace the political changes (principally practical and theoretical) in what he refers to as ‘AngloSaxon liberalism’. Consequently this is not a book designed to provide a detailed and comprehensive account of British criminology and criminal justice policy—these merely provide a means of exploring the development of Anglo-Saxon liberalism. It is consciously aimed at political ends (theory) rather than means (science). Western capitalist societies, predominantly the United States and Britain, experienced a dramatic shift in social, economic and political terms, as ‘the social’, a fundamental aspect of the welfare liberalism of the post-war period, gradually gave way to neo-liberalism and its inherent emphasis on the superiority of the market. Neo-liberalism requires limits to be placed on ‘... the power of the state and (perhaps) [the] strengthen[ing of] the rule of law, all in the name of protecting established individuals’ (p x). At times the book is difficult to read, and a great deal of energy is expended in clarifying terms and delineating thought processes. The introduction is given over to the refinement of the essential question the book is designed to address, which initially is phrased as ‘Why was British criminology so interesting in the 1970s?’. The answer, perhaps surprisingly, and certainly so for those unfamiliar with this territory, is that it presents a lens through which to view some of the key elements of Western liberalism. Far from simply evaluating and critiquing its core values, it seems that British criminology, even its more radical components, actually anticipated neo-liberalism and the neo-liberal state. Indeed, Sullivan argues quite strongly that some of the positions staked out went far beyond the limits of the Thatcherite project. His subsequent question: ‘What’s happening with Anglo-Saxon liberalism?’ gives way to his desire to articulate its changing character. It is in this context that Sullivan sets out to explore its three key elements, namely: the autonomous individual, the power of the state and the rule of law. The book separates its nine chapters into these three corresponding sections. The first of these sections, ‘The Autonomous Individual’, perhaps the most engaging and accessible of the three, has two chapters which revolve around the academic and policy debates of the 1970s. Its opening chapter, ‘The Revolt of British Criminology in the 1970s’, details the challenge posited by the National Deviancy Conference to the cosy relationship and petty reformism of the Home Office and the academic ‘golden triangle’ (Oxford and Cambridge Universities and the London School of Economics). The resultant radical criminology, seen here as embodied in the work of Jock Young, Stan Cohen and Geoff Pearson, perhaps inadvertently
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